As Sharron Angle’s campaign attorney, I am sorry to report that the Democrats and their cronies are up to their same old tricks, of trying to manipulate the election in hopes of skewing the results in their favor.

Two days ago, the Democratic Secretary of State announced that voters can be provided “free food” at “voter turnout events.” Harry Reid has been offering free food and, according to other reports, some Democratic allies such as teachers’ unions are offering gift cards in return for a vote for Reid.

Before we were even able to document the reported infractions to report to the authorities, the Democrat Secretary of State slammed the door shut on preventing this behavior and issued a public statement permitting these ACORN-style tactics. THESE are the kinds of shenanigans that can turn this race.

Harry Reid intends to steal this election if he can’t win it outright. As a result, we need to deploy literally dozens of election law attorneys and poll watchers to combat these tactics at a cost of nearly $80,000. That’s over and above our current budget. We need to raise $80,000 and we need to do it RIGHT NOW, because even as I am writing this, Harry Reid and his Machine are trying to steal this election. I’m sorry that we have to come to you yet again and ask for you to reach deep and contribute, but we must.

Understand, EVERYTHING we have worked for in the last year could be destroyed by dirty tricks and criminal acts in the next 8 days. As Sharron’s first line of defense on these matters I am absolutely committed to making sure this won’t happen.

Ross Miller, the Nevada Secretary of State, has issued an official statement encouraging “anyone with information regarding ‘vote buying’ to contact the Election Integrity Task Force” and insisting that “To date, no such complaint has been submitted to this office.” However, he notes that giving out free food, offering rides, giving time off for work, throwing parties, and the like are not violations of state law “so long as the activity is not corrupt in nature, meaning it is not connected to any specific candidate and does not compromise the will of the elector.”

I’m not a fan of walking around money, free meals, and other aggressive get-out-the-vote efforts, which strike me as unseemly and counter to the spirit of elections in an advanced society. But they’re generally not illegal unless there’s a quid pro quo. That people who wouldn’t have bothered to vote on their own might be more likely to vote for Harry Reid because they’ve been given $20 or a free meal by someone in a “Vote Harry Reid” t-shirt is on this side of “corrupt in nature” under the law.

Angle may the first major candidate to accuse her opponent of stealing the election outright this year, but it’s unlikely that she’ll be the last. A growing number of Republicans in tight races have taken up the crusade against voter fraud, including Mark Kirk, who’s planning a large-scale operation to send poll watchers and lawyers on Election Day. In the meantime, it’s also a good way to stoke the conservative base, which is already primed to believe that union thugs and New Black Panther wannabes will steal the election anyway.

It goes both ways. Every cycle, Republicans charge Democrats with shady practices designed to get ineligible people to vote for their candidates while Democrats charge Republicans with trying to stop minorities from voting. Aside from isolated incidents by overzealous low level campaign workers, these charges are always overblown but they have the desired effects of muddying the waters and stoking the base.

What’s particularly odd in this case is that Angle has been favored to win this race for some time. Despite holding only a very narrow lead in all the polls, the lead has been consistent. Nate Silver currently projects a 72.7% chance that Angle beats Reid. If, however, Reid pulls an upset, the seeds have been sown for a bitter recount fight and charges of a stolen election.

Oct. 13) — Federal, state, and local officials are gathering information about allegations of voter registration fraud that were first raised Channel 8 Eyewitness News.

An employee of a private voter registration firm alleges that his bosses trashed registration forms filled out by Democratic voters because they only wanted to sign up Republican voters.

Petitioners conned voters into switching to the GOP

Petitioners prowling parking lots and community college campuses tricked dozens of young Orange County voters into registering to vote as Republicans, an Orange County Register investigation has found.

The con occurred at the end of January and the beginning of February at places like Cypress College and Golden West College, and outside of discount stores like Wal-Mart and Food 4 Less. It appears to be the same kind of voter registration fraud that engulfed Orange County four years ago and landed eight signature gatherers in jail.

Mario Ardila, 19, a student at Orange Coast College is one of more than 70 voters identified by the Orange County Register who was tricked into registering to vote as a Republican. He shows the free “cheap” pair of sunglasses that he was enticed with.
MINDY SCHAUER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
MORE PHOTOS »

How to protect yourself

Not all signature gatherers are dishonest but here are some tips to protect yourself from the ones who are:

>Don’t sign a petition based on what you’re told. Read it thoroughly.

>It’s not true that you need to be registered to vote for a particular party in order to sign a petition for a ballot measure.

>If a signature gatherer asks you to register to vote, ask for a blank registration card. Fill it out at home and mail it in yourself.

–The Orange County Register
ADVERTISEMENT
More from Investigations
Immigration reform: Touching the third rail of U.S. politics
Who wins, loses from mass immigration to California?
‘Cynical’ policy tacitly encourages illegal immigration

Since mid-March, at least 99 written complaints have been submitted to state elections officials by Orange County residents who say they were registered to vote Republican without their consent. The Register found an additional 74 voters who said they were duped or coerced into registering to vote as a Republican by signature gatherers who initially asked them to sign petitions for causes like legalizing marijuana, fighting cancer or cleaning up beaches.

Sam, why don’t you deal with the topic instead of trying to distract with the “look what these guys did”? You want civil war? Cheat on this election. Democrats are going to be out of power one way or another. America is not ready for socialism.

Sam
I would like to know a little more about these “Petitioners’ you talk about. Are you sure they were even Republicans? What political purpose is it in getting someone to register as a Republican?

Having them register (or registering them yourself) then having their absentee ballots sent to you P.O. Box, now there is a clear reason for that and it is call fraud. Having an electronic ballot machine automatically filling out names or selecting a particular party regardless of what the voter actually selected, once again there is clear political purpose for doing so. Voting machines doing such things should make any fair-minded person wonder.

FYI
ACORN workers turning in Daffy Duck, Mickey Mouse or dead people with “phony” addresses don’t concern me. If the addresses are not phony or if an election office tries to send them absentee ballots, it surely does.

“registered to vote at Los Angeles addresses that were not his own. State law requires petition circulators to be qualified voters. Jacoby will also be required to show proof he is registered at his correct address”

He register at an address not his own. Wow. Maybe he doesn’t have a place. What happen to” the homeless need to be able to vote to”? Now unless you can show that he was register at multiple places with intent to vote, it is not that big of deal. Sounds more like a dumb kid to me.

Do you you think this is anywhere near having other people’s absentee ballots being sent to your address?

You didn’t answer what political advantage it is to have register someone as a Republican when they are not. Wonder why?